Shaman or mage

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

Okay guys so I managed to narrow down what class Ima roll in classic to two. Shaman or mage. Which class do you guys recommend? I know that shamans have to heal in raids which I don’t mind doing. I’m hoping on going elemental for pvp. People say Mage have more utility and easier time in vanilla which def intrigues me. I played vanilla but towards the end of it. I don’t have too much knowledge from classic because I was very young when I started and didn’t know crap. Pros and cons of both shaman and mage? Please any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

2

I would say mage.

  • PvP savants (if played well)
  • Great utility (conjured goodies, portals)
  • AoE grinding extraordinaires
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3

Thank you for the quick reply :slight_smile:

4

Unless you want to heal than Mage out performs Shaman in every aspect of the game, except maybe PvP. Shamans are pretty great there with the right build, and I’ve heard stories of Windfury shenanigans.

Even then, Mages are fantastic at PvP. They’re fantastic at PvP, soloing, Raiding, Farming, etc. For Raiding, they’re loved in all stages of content, instead of weak at first and strong later or strong at first and weak later.

Even if you aren’t a healer, people will still love you for mage food and portals.

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5

I do believe shamans can use a 30/0/21 spec to pvp and raid heal. At least something close someone was showing it here a few days ago.

7

It depends what you want to do, and how.

Shaman are a support class. If what you want is solely to put up big personal numbers, pick mage. As a shaman, though you can absolutely do massive burst damage of your own (especially as elemental), our true power is in our ability to support our allies.

Whether that’s throwing a frost shock on an enemy, or using earthbind totem to peel a group, or grounding totem to block a spell, or tremor totem to remove a fear; whether it’s just instantly killing the rogue who popped onto a squishy or throwing heals; a shaman who never wants to do anything but damage is wasting the class.

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8

This can apply for like literally any class in the game.

9

I’ll put a list of pros and cons, as I remember them (take with grain of salt):

Mage
Pros:
Amazing damage.
Good mobility.
Best Aoe damage.
Arcane Intellect buff.
Portals to important cities/villages group members can use.
Or can teleport themselves (I think teleport is cheaper)
Conjure food and water. (You’ll still want cooking for stat food though)
Easier to gear than some classes (like warrior/rogue/hunter).

Cons:
Squishy, can’t take much damage. (Outside of Iceblock)
Mana classes can’t do damage when out of mana.
Early raids are ‘fire’ raids, with lots of mobs immune to fire. (you’ll use frost)

Shaman
Pros:
Heal (good) or DPS (mid tier).
Totems. Incredible group utility/buffs for almost any situation
Chain Heal. A unique group heal that hits main target, and then chains to others.
Mail/Leather/Cloth. Among casters, has the most armor options for gearing.
Good to excellent burst damage if specing for dps caster.
Windfury. Doesn’t need to be Enhancement to use this ability.
Good heals overall. Big slow heal, quick medium heal. And chain heal.

Cons:
Mana hog. Shaman aren’t mana efficient. They need to gear for MP5 and spirit.
Melee. While shaman can fight in melee, they shouldn’t stay in melee.
Enhancement (melee) is not a good spec. It is fun to play, but poor throughput.
Reliant on nature damage. Most elemental type mobs have some nature resist.
Poor mobility overall.
Group support class. Without a group to support, some abilities aren’t useful.

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10

Indeed, but whereas the PvE skill floor for mages is just about the lowest there is, the PvP skill ceiling is particularly high, in my opinion, making a skilled mage particularly devastating.

11

I’d also consider how frustrated you get with being squishy. Shamans wear mail after level 40.

I was an alliance hunter. I’ve one shot many of horde mages… I’ve never one shot a shaman… close!! But never an actual one shot.

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